Spring Break Trip to Jordan: Day One

This entry is about day one of a four-day trip to Jordan. This post will be continued later with the next three days.

One of the great things about living in the United Arab Emirates is that there are plenty of interesting places to visit that are only a short plane or bus trip away. Recently, my boyfriend and I decided to take advantage of this fact by taking a trip for spring break. At first, we discussed at length about visiting Beirut, Lebanon for the week. Beirut is a popular destination for many people who live in the Emirates because it is a fairly liberal society with great nightlife. But after talking about it a bit more, Anwar and I decided that perhaps it would be better to spend five days in another Levantine country: Jordan. Even though Anwar's nationality is Jordanian and he lived there for a couple of years, he left much of the country unexplored. And wow, is there a lot to explore! I also wanted to visit Jordan because my former roommate from Lewis & Clark, Charlotte, is there on an exchange program.

Our trip to Jordan was the most spontaneous trip I've ever taken (we purchased the plane tickets 12 hours before leaving, and did so with almost no plan), which perhaps was a contributing factor to it being the most amazing trip I've ever taken.

After arriving at Queen Alia airport in Amman, we took a taxi to the hotel that we'd booked for a night before leaving Dubai. After resting up a bit at the hotel, we then decided to go downtown to eat. Our taxi driver recommended a Palestinian-Jordanian restaurant called al-Quds Restaurant, where we ordered the Jordanian national dish called mansaf. The dish is so simple, yet so delicious: herbed meat atop a bed of rice. I ordered chicken and Anwar had lamb. Even though I came in very hungry, I was barely able to eat half of my plate. After dinner we walked down the street to a sweets shop also recommended by our taxi driver, called Habibeh. There we stood in line to get a slice of Kunafah, which is a popular dessert found all across the Arab world. Jordanians are known for their sweet tooth, and this dish is sweet enough to satisfy anyone. Kunafah is made with a shredded orange-colored crispy pastry with a bottom layer of cheese or cream. After our excellent meal, we spent the rest of the night driving around town trying to find a more economical hotel for the rest of the week than the one recommended by Expedia.com. We finally found a place in a great area called Swefiyeh; it was a nice hotel run by a friendly set of locals.

The next day, our first full day in Jordan, Anwar and I decided to explore the city of Amman. We woke up early and had our taxi driver drop us on Rainbow Street to have breakfast at a restaurant that Charlotte told us to try out. Unfortunately, the place was closed until late morning, a few hours. We'd have to find something to do to fill in time before we could come back and have lunch there. I pulled out my map of Amman and noticed that the Roman Amphitheatre was not far from where we were. So we started walking in that general direction.

Looking across the city of Amman, with a rooftop restaurant in the foreground

Down a typical Amman sidestreet

Amman is a huge maze of hills, staircases, side streets and old stone houses. There's no looking at a map of the city and deciding exactly which streets to take to get there. Instead, you walk in the general direction and keep going until you find what you're looking for. This is how we ended up downtown again in a busy area lined with shops, restaurants, and locals trying to get you to buy their freshly squeezed juice. After about half an hour of walking and no sign of the aphitheatre, I looked at my map of Amman again and found the intersection where we stood. I realized that we were standing literally across the street from the Roman ruins. We turned around, and there it was--right in the middle of this busy downtown area.

Trying to get downtown in the maze of stairs

Mosque on a busy street near the Roman aphitheatre

The Roman Aphitheatre, rubbing elbows with the city of Amman

In the Roman Aphitheatre

Looking out across the aphitheatre, Anwar and I found our next destination: the Citadel atop a nearby hill. We planned which streets and stairs to take to get there, and after spending a few more moments admiring the grandeur of the Roman theatre architecture, set out for the Citadel.

Getting tired... walking up the steep stairs to the Citadel

The view of Amman from the Citadel's hill was absolutely spectacular. The city sprawled across all 360 degrees of the view, with no end in sight to the hills crowded haphazardly with stone buildings.

View of the theatre from the Citadel hill

A view from the Citadel hill

Another view from the Citadel hill, with New Amman's taller buildings in the background

The Citadel site was scattered with ruins of old pillars, facades, walls, and even parts of giant statues. The ruins there are from the Roman and Ummayyad periods. It was interesting for me to see the layout and ruins of an Ummayyad palace, having studied this era of architecture in my Islamic Arts & Architecture class last semester.

Ruins of the Temple of Hercules (Roman, 2nd century)

The remains of a large Roman statue's hand near the Temple of Hercules

To be continued...